Why "Selling In The DMs" Is Keeping You BROKE!!!!!

Alright guys, what the heck is up? Oh my God, what is up? It is 7:05 PM on a Friday and I just hit a quarter of a million dollars in sales in 2022. What a time to be alive and what a perfect piece of credibility to start off this podcast. Which is titled, "Why 'selling in the DMs' is keeping you broke." Okay, so I guess really my point with this is, you know, I've been in the sales world for a little while. I've been in the world for a hot minute. And I definitely think, you know, I'm definitely a nerd about this topic. And I just see so much stuff on social media these days about like, you know, um, selling in the DMs and how, um, you know, how much sex appeal that has in the coaching industry. And while I, you know, at one point I actually think I started to drink that Kool-Aid myself a little bit, but then with some more context I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Um, but yeah, I just think, I just think this is not the greatest strategy, especially if you're a newer coach. Um, and I want to break down why this is so that you can make an informed decision for yourself and understand the pros and cons, where it works, where doesn't, the factors that are playing in, and really give you some tangible numbers that you can, like I say, make some decisions for yourself. So I'm sure there's many things I could touch on on this topic, but I'm going to, I'm going to touch on 3 big ones. Number 1 is depending on your ideal client, right? It depends if this is a, you know, a good sales mechanism for you, a good conversion tool, if you will. It depends on your ideal client. Number one, it depends on the amount of know, like, and trust factor you have with your audience. Um, and the other thing I wanna break down is I wanna give you some examples of different conversion tools, you know, sales calls versus masterclasses versus video sales letters versus selling in the DMs and give you some frigging numbers. So you actually have some context as to, you know, how effective are these different methods. So let's dive right into this. I will just say this has been something that has been— at first it was on my mind for my own business. Like, like I said, I started kind of drinking the, you know, selling in the DMs Kool-Aid at one point. And while I understand that this can work, yeah, I just don't think it's like the best strategy. And so this has been on my mind as of late because I'm always looking at my own business and I'm like, well, what is, You know what, I have a couple different sales tools that I use, right? Like I use, I have a masterclass I use, I have sales calls that I use and I have selling in the DMs that I use. But I've been really asking myself the question like, what is the best mechanism? And maybe like, you know, I just, just been trying to be strategic with my own business. And I actually was on a sales call the other day with another sales coach and we, she was talking about the same thing. And so, I just got like reinspired again and again. The universe keeps pinging me to make this podcast. So let's dive right in. So the first piece I want to say is it freaking depends. Okay. It depends on who your ideal client is. So I'm going to tell two different stories for this to illustrate my point. So when I, so I just, first of all, I just reinvested another $24,000 in my, um, my current mentor, which is crazy and wild, and I never thought I'd be doing this, and also very cool at the same time. But what I want to bring you back to was, you know, so this is the second time I'm investing with her, but I want to bring you back to April, uh, of 2022 when I made the first decision to invest in this coach. Now here's how this happened. Basically, I was following her on Instagram, like, sort of by accident. Anyways, I stayed in her world. I saw a couple posts here and there. One wasn't really paying that much attention. And then for whatever freaking reason, I don't know what the universe was— I don't know what the universe was doing, but she really started to stand out to me in April of 2022. And like, I don't know why, but I somehow got kind of drawn into her content a little bit, really checked it out for like a couple days. And then she posted something about one of her masterminds, and I DM'd her, and I was like, hey, what are the details in this mastermind? I talked with her for a couple of days in the DMs, asked her some questions, had some fears, had some hesitations, whatever. And then probably maybe a week after having these conversations, I decided to commit to paying her about $20,000 for a 6-month mastermind, which is like, it sounds crazy to me. It sounds crazy. And for context, like I had never had any experience with her. Like I had barely followed her content. I had never been to a free masterclass. I'd never downloaded an ebook. I'd never purchased a course, like nothing. Like I had no touchpoints with this lady other than like, I saw how, I saw how she was selling on Instagram and I was like, damn. I was like, this chick sells like me, only she sells even better. I was like, ugh, I gotta learn from her. And so anyways, I made the decision, I invested and boom, $20,000, no sales call, no BS, right through the DMs. Now here's the point that I want to make with this. She was speaking to people who were already making, you know, $8,000, $10,000, $15,000 a month and wanted to scale to consistent $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 months. Okay. So for me, like, you have to understand what mindset I was in, like, I already was, you know, my business was already making money, right? Like, I, my, I had like enough funds, you know what I mean? I had plenty of experiences where I had invested in myself and made back the ROI, you know, 10x, right? So at that point, like, I was a business owner who knew and had experienced the value and the return on investment, um, with those decisions that I had made, right? And so not only was I just like, you know, I had the income, I had the experience with like investing in myself and making the money back. But yeah, I also like just— I'm just like a very driven, like disciplined person with really big goals. And like she was speaking to that kind of person. So yeah, like that kind of person is very self-led and understands investing in themselves. And yeah, they probably would, you know, send her $20,000 in the DMs.. But I'll give you a, a, like a different story, you know, using my ideal client. So like example, I just got off of a sales call, a discovery call with a beautiful human today. And we did actually one of the longest sales calls that I have ever done. And we were actually on the phone and it was actually a blast, by the way. Like I had so much fun. I'm so excited to support this girl and I actually was like, yeah, I crushed that sales call. Like, it was like, you just text, it was so good anyways. But we were on the phone. My point with this is we were on the phone for an hour and 45 freaking minutes. Okay. This, now here's the things I want to explain to you with this. Like this person had all the objections, like all the potential obstacles. Like one of them was like, I'm not sure if the timing for this is right. And we had to work through that. The other one was like, I don't really have the funds right now for this. And we had to work through that. And you know, probably one of the bigger ones is this person was like, kind of had that like, will this work for me? Objection. Because, you know, they had invested in some programs in the past and not that they were bad, but like they didn't make back the money that they thought they were going to make or they didn't make back the money that they thought they were going to make given the timeline that they were assuming they were going to make that money back. And so, you know, there were some fears and hesitations and self-doubt there about making another investment because, you know, they didn't have the proof that there was a return on that for them. Right. And so my point by illustrating this, these two stories is like, I'm just going to be real with you guys. Like, if I hadn't gotten that person on a sales call, number one, there's no way they would have made a decision that fast. Like, they got off the call, talked to their husband, and boom, 30 minutes later they were like, yeah, I mean, let's do it. So like, and like, literally, I think we spent Literally, like maybe the call itself in terms of like, you know, content was maybe an hour, but like the other 45 minutes was like pure objection answering. And so my point with this is like, imagine trying to do that in the DMs. It would take you forever. It would be a nightmare. And like, oh, it's just so hard to get people's actual objections out of them in the DMs. Have I done it before? Yes. But like, it's just a whole nother level of skill. And so my point with this story is you have to know that selling in the DMs or not selling in the DMs, like it really depends. It really depends on your level of skill and certainly who you're freaking targeting. Like that's the biggest thing. You know, if you're targeting self-led driven entrepreneurs who are already making like a quarter of a million dollars in their business, like yeah, they probably would pay you 20 grand through the DMs. But like if you're targeting a new coach who has all these fears and hesitations and will it work and they don't think the timing is right and like, you know, they're not used to investing in themselves and they have these previous stories of like why it won't work and all this stuff, like good friggin' luck, okay? Good friggin' luck. So anyways, I hope that this, that, you know, point, those two stories were helpful. But what I'm trying to get across with this is that it really depends on your unique situation. And so the problem with getting this advice on social media that's not customized to you, like when you're just reading somebody's post, you're just reading their perspective based on the, their reality. And like, it's just not always applicable, okay? And the, the thing that sucks, especially if like you're like a newer coach, is you're like, you're not really sure whose advice fits for who. And all it's like, it's just harder to figure out because you're so new to the game, right? I mean, I will say that is what— that is why it can be helpful to have a mentor, because they'll help you sort through that BS. Like, it's just a lot. But, um, anyways, that's, that's my first point with this, is it just, it just really depends on your situation. And you know, just because Sally is selling in the DMs and that's working for her, it doesn't mean that that is the best strategy for you. So that is point number 1. Now, point number 2 that I want to make, and I'll, I'll compare, I mean, I'll even compare, I could use my mentor or I could use myself, but let's just say I compare myself with, um, well, you know what, let's just do an even bigger contrast. Let me compare my coach who's making, I think she's done like $1.3 million in sales this year. Um, let me compare her to, a brand new coach, right, who's just starting, has never had a client before. They're like green on social media, right? Okay. Well, part of why I was able to send my mentor like $20,000 is because she had a huge social media presence. Like, she is good at marketing and visibility and content and copywriting. And she has— honestly, that chick has testimonials and social proof, like, coming out her wazoo. Like, it's just like, so it's just so easy. Like, she's very good at building the know, the know factor, the know and like factor. And the trust piece is just huge because it's like, go look at her content, go look at the results that she has in her own business, go look at her client results. Like, that is a totally different game from someone like, especially if you're a newer coach who nobody friggin knows who you are. Nobody trusts you. They don't have that much connection with you. Like trying to— like if, like if I couldn't see any piece of credibility online, you think I was going to send her $20,000? Like, heck no. Okay, so that's the second point. And that's another thing that you really have to consider is like, how far along are you in business? How much credibility and authority do you have in the marketplace? What kind of results are you— have you been getting for yourself and your clients? Are you documenting that stuff? Have you been showcasing it on social media? For a lot of you that are listening to this, if you're a newer coach, like that, just, you know, that piece just might not be there. Okay. And so that is another, um, you know, piece of this puzzle, you know, surrounding like, should you sell in the DMs or not? So that's my second point. The third point that I want to make is I actually just want to lay out some numbers for you and give you some like for real context on, on, you know, how effective these different types of sales tools are. So to give you some context, on a sales call, if like generally, generally sales calls are going to convert between 20 to 50%. Now if you're doing like, if you're cold calling people, maybe it's closer to 10%. Most of you aren't doing that. Like if you're in the coaching industry, you're not like dialing for dollars. You're not sitting there like, just let me just cold call everyone. Like no, right? But generally I would say they convert between 20 and 50%. My sales call close rate is really high. It's like 75%, maybe 80%. Like, it's high. Now, the reason it's so high is because I get really qualified leads on the phone. It's just because of how I do my marketing and relationship building on Instagram. I just, I get really aligned, like energetically aligned people on the phone. So that's part of it. And they already know, like, and trust me a lot. The other part is I'm good at sales. Right? So, you know, sales calls can convert at up to like 80%, right? Meaning if you book 5 calls, 4 of them turn into clients. And I'm sure there are some people who have higher, you know, rate than that or whatever. But like if you book, you know, 5 calls, 4 are gonna turn into sales. Okay? So let's just, let's just say for an average that sales calls convert at, let's just go with 40%. Um, I'll use that. I think that's the average of like one of my health coaching clients is like 40%. So let's just say 40%. If you were to do a video sales letter. Now, some of you may not know what that is, but it's basically like a video that you would send someone about your pitch. And you know, that way they have some context and stuff like that. If you were to send someone, try to sell through like a video sales letter, it's probably more like 10% might convert. Like it's a dramatic drop. Like, And actually, let me just for simplicity's sake, let me just use 50% for the sales calls. But like, because like you should be able to get to 50%, you know, you're going to have to put in some work, but you should be able to get to 50%. But, you know, a VSL that's going to convert at like 10%, that's going to convert like 10%, like, like 20% of the conversion rate that your sales calls were going to give you. Meaning like if they convert at 10%, that means you book 10 calls and you close one, right? Versus like if you were doing discovery calls, you book 10 calls and you close, you know, 4 or 5. So huge difference. If you send someone to a sales page, if you send like cold traffic, let's say from a Facebook ad to a sales page, you're probably going to get like, I don't know, like 1% conversion, like 100 people. Like this is why it drives me berserk when people think that their website is going to be their conversion tool. Like I'll just build it and they will come. I'm going to build a website and you know, I'm going to have clients. Like, it doesn't— number one, it doesn't work like that because there's no traffic going to your website. Like, you still have to send people there. But number two, like, if you're trying to sell through a sales page on a website, like, that's going to convert at like 1 or 2% for you. Like, it's really freaking low. Now, give you another piece of context. Masterclasses. I have a very— you know what? I have a masterclass, honestly, that converts so much higher than industry standards. It's nuts. It is nuts. But even still, let me give you some context. If you're gonna run a webinar or a masterclass, like let's say it's a free masterclass and you talk about your offer at the end and you, you make a pitch, typically here are the typical numbers and these might be like a bit outdated. Like these are numbers I was probably using a year and a half ago or 2 years ago. But like if you get 100 people to register, you have to get the people to show up too. Typically only 30% of the people are gonna show up. So you got 100 people to register, only 30%, meaning 30 of them showed up. If your masterclass is really freaking good, like really good, you might expect a 10% conversion rate on the masterclass. That means you're going to get 10% of 30 people. That's 3 people, meaning 100 people registered for this, this sales mechanism, this webinar that you have, right? And only 3 of them bought. That's a 3% total conversion. Like, it's low. It's so low. And so my point with this is sales calls convert the friggin highest. Okay. Now what I don't honestly have data for, I actually, I don't know, because this is like social media is a bit of a new thing. Instagram is like a bit of a new thing. I just, I don't know if I have a stat on your conversion rate for selling in the DMs. But like, if I was going to hazard a guess, I know it's not going to be as high as sales calls. I would say maybe, maybe 10%, 15%, 10 to 20%. I don't know. I'd go with 10% for a ballpark or like maybe even 15% for a ballpark. But it's like a third or a quarter. I would guesstimate of how effective it's going to be to get someone on a sales call because like it's just so hard to dig up those objections or those hesitations if people have them. And so what I'm hoping this puts into context for you is you really, you just, you have to be mindful of these things. And sometimes this, you know, stuff that Sally's doing, like, you know, even my mentor, like selling through the DMs. Yeah, but she's got, different ideal clients. She has so much know, like, and trust. And honestly, she has so many leads floating around in her world that she probably— it doesn't matter if some of the people don't sign up with her. She's not like— leads are not her bottlenecks. Like, she's got abundance of people in her world. She doesn't— like, she can afford to have people fall through the cracks, right? But especially if you're a newer coach and you're like really like struggling to make sales, like you don't have a big following or like you don't have a lot of eyeballs, you don't have a lot of visibility. Like you're gonna, you're just, you're gonna lose sales. You're just, you're gonna, it just, you're, you're, it's just gonna be so inefficient. It's just gonna be so inefficient, you know? Um, I just think like some people can afford to be less efficient because like they have an abundance of leads. But if you don't have an abundance of leads of interested potential clients, this is gonna make it so much harder for you. So anyways, that's my point with this. I wanna give you some context on, you know, That's why some people can, you know, sell using a sales mechanism being selling in the DMs, right? Or these people who you see running like masterclasses and making that work, they have huge audiences. So that 3% is like a big number for them. Like they can make a lot of sales with 3%. Or if you're running Facebook ads and you have like, you're literally just paying Facebook to send you leads, if you figured out that, you know, system, then yeah, running a masterclass can be a really effective sales tool to convert a lot of people. But like, if you don't have the lead flow for that, it doesn't make sense. So anyways, this is my rant for you. I hope it was helpful. I hope this has given you some context on like the lenses through which you should be looking at this decision. Um, and it just equips you with your own your own knowledge so that you can apply this to yourself in your own business, okay? And, and this is like, I mean, it took me 20 minutes just to say this, and there's more things I could say, um, but like, you know, that's why it's like, it's just so dangerous sometimes to take all your business advice from this micro, you know, piece of content that you found on Instagram from Sally, okay? So that's, that's it. That's all I got for you. You know, these are a couple things to consider. You Number 1, who are your ideal clients? Number 2, what kind of credibility and authority do you have in the marketplace? And number 3, you know, based on where you're at with your business and the amount of leads flowing in, does it make sense for you to pick one of these lower, um, converting sales mechanisms? So that's it. I hope this was helpful. Um, hope you enjoyed one of my first podcasts. I will say if you need any help with this, if you need any help with sales, and I mean any kind of sales, like, you know, certainly sales calls are obviously my wheelhouse. That's the— and that's the top thing I would recommend for you, especially if you're a new coach. But if you need any help with marketing, lead generation, sales, send me a DM on Instagram @iamorgangillis and we can chat about whatever offers I have that might be right for you. So that's pretty much it. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. Peace and love. All right, and abundance. All right, bye.